Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system of controlling plant root growth in nursery operations, and more particular to releasing carbon bound root inhibiting materials in a vessel formed for containing all root growth and branching within the vessel.
It is well known in the art to grow nursery stock such as trees in containers above ground until the plants are mature enough to be transplanted. The growth of plants in containers involves a high degree of mortality due to high summer temperatures that reduce plant growth and low winter temperatures that often kill the roots of the plant in the vessel. Growing nursery stock above ground in containers is also susceptible to high winds and being blown over by those high winds and suffering catastrophic damage. Accordingly, the growth of nursery stock such as trees in the ground is desirable where the surrounding soil insulates the roots from the temperature extremes of the summer and winter and also maintains the plant in an upright position during high wind events. However, planting nursery stock below ground leads to difficulties when transplantation is desired. Previous efforts have been directed to minimizing the lateral root growth by the use of various root control bags that allow penetration of the walls of the bag and offer a convenient cut off point for the nurseryman when removing the plant from the ground. The severing of plant roots for transplantation is an inexact art. Many plants suffer a premature death due to the nurseryman making a mistake in judgement and severing vital roots as part of the overall trimming of the root ball before transplantation to the final site. Severing the vital roots causes the tree to become dead-upon-arrival at the transplantation site.
A system is needed to eliminate the decision making as to which plant roots to sever. Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide a root control system that contains all of the roots of the plant within a vessel in the ground and eliminates the decision to trim the roots on the part of the nurseryman.
Also, the planting of nursery stock in-ground and the later removal of the mature tree is time consuming and expensive process. A tree that is destroyed by excessive root trimming must be replaced by another live tree. A dead tree or nearly dead tree increases the landscaping cost to the final user. Therefore, a system that increases the survival rate of transplanted trees will reduce the unit cost of each individual tree to the consumer.